Hauntings

The Ghost at Baile na Cille and the Seer's Stone

Baile na Cille burial ground, Uig, west Lewis

Told of the early 17th century; recorded 1877

They returned after about an hour and the graves closed over them. One grave near the side stayed open. She laid her distaff across its mouth, having heard a spirit cannot re-enter a grave while one is on it, and waited. A fair lady came rushing through the air from the north and asked her to lift the distaff. The mother asked why she was so late, and the ghost said her journey was longer, since she had to go all the way to Norway. She was a daughter of the King of Norway, drowned while bathing there, and her body had been found on the beach near the churchyard and buried in that grave. As a reward for the woman's courage, she told her to find a small round blue stone in a nearby lake and give it to her son Kenneth, by which he would foretell events.

Mackenzie gives other versions of how the stone came to the Seer, and the Wikipedia article stresses that there is no historical evidence that a prophet of this name existed. This is the Lewis version of the origin story, tied to a named burial ground.

Evidence
Long-standing local tradition
Access
Access unrecorded
Location
58.195, -7.025 (Parish-level only, treat as an area)

Sources: Alexander Mackenzie, The Prophecies of the Brahan Seer (1877), Project Gutenberg [public-domain]; Wikipedia, "Brahan Seer" [other]

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